For having one of the youngest basketball teams in the WPIAL, the Mt. Lebanon boys are well-traveled, thanks to an improbable postseason run that spanned more than a month of extra basketball.

After reaching the WPIAL Class AAAA title game and playing what amounted to road games all the way to the state semifinals, Blue Devils coach Joe David thinks his team will be ready for just about anything next season.

"I told them after [the state semifinal loss], 'What can bother you next year?'" David said. "What can get them rattled? Look where they have been. They were down to Palumbo, played Erie Cathedral Prep with 90 percent of Erie fans there, and went on the road to Central Cambria. It has been a great experience and an experience you can't really simulate in a career."

The playoff travels for a Mt. Lebanon team (24-6) that missed the postseason entirely last year began with a 15-point victory against Kiski Area in the first round of the WPIAL tournament. The outcomes would be a lot closer the rest of the way. Mt. Lebanon would get past McKeesport, 45-43, and North Hills, 36-35, to reach the WPIAL title game, where it lost to Peters Township, 60-54.

"Those are the games that last year we might have lost," David said. "This year we just found ways to win. When the game was close near the end, we would find a way and guys would make plays."

A week later, Mt. Lebanon opened the state playoffs where it avenged a regular-season loss with a 49-45 win over City League runner-up Allderdice at a City League venue, Peabody.

In the second round the Blue Devils hit the road to Central Cambria in Ebensburg where it knocked off State College, 51-49, and then to Sharon where it overcame a partisan crowd and a late fourth-quarter deficit to beat Erie Cathedral Prep, 51-41.

Mt. Lebanon reached the PIAA semifinals for only the third time in school history where it lost to eventual Class AAAA state champion Penn Wood, 79-58.

"The first thing I told them after the [Penn Wood loss] was 'Don't let the disappointment of [this game] take away from your accomplishments of the season.' It has been a fantastic year," David said.

"How many opportunities do you have to play the No. 1 team in the state? All the games we won prior to that gave us that experience and opportunity to play that team. I would rather play them and see where we stand than go out and play a team that is not a competitor."

Through the luck of some timely scheduling, Mt. Lebanon had a chance to have a dress rehearsal of the WPIAL playoffs to close out its regular season. With games against playoff-bound teams Bethel Park, Peters Township, Upper St. Clair and McKeesport before the postseason began, David was about to find out what his team was capable of. Mt. Lebanon won all four of those games.

"I knew we had a really good team but the question was whether or not we had the maturity to advance into the finals," David said.

"We talked about our last four games of the season being against playoff teams and we said 'Let's make it a dry run.' We had that mentality going in."

The only thing that made the 24-win season and co-section championship more improbable than the disappointing 8-15 season last year was the strictly underclassmen starting lineup the Blue Devils brought into the season. Senior guard Brian Lackner was the first player off the bench for Mt. Lebanon but the rest of the scoring returns next season.

"Brian handled the ball for us and played fantastic defense, we are definitely going to miss him but all the younger kids can step up," David said.

Junior guard Evan Pierce was the team's leading scorer and one of the top offensive players in all of Class AAAA. Freshman guard Luke Hagy emerged as another scoring option, Deion Turman, a 6-foot-8 junior forward, averaged a double-double this season and sophomore reserve Paul Lang stepped up as a vocal leader and was named captain as a 10th grader.

"The kids have the leadership necessary," David said.

"You look at Luke Hagy, he is just a freshman but he has as much experience as anybody. Next year it will be more of collective leadership. I look for them all to step up, it will be five or six guys coming together and leading together."